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Jamaica had to have been a decent team in order to make the finals. And this being the playoffs, their success starts with their rotation, which is led by the solid Mat Latos. He's followed by the reliable...sorry, injury prone Shaun Marcum. He threw 124 innings last year, mostly below league average. But I'm sure there's someone more reliable behind Marcum. After all, they have Andy Pettite who was...oh, right, injured last season. He did manage a whole 12 starts (75 innings). Well, maybe the fourth starter is more reliable? Oh, it's Johan Santana, who threw 117 innings with a 4.85 ERA? And he's followed by De La Rosa who had TJ surgery? Not a good sign.
So basically we shouldn't expect more than 2 of these guys to actually be able to pitch in the playoffs, because none of them, save for Latos, has a shot at being healthy for October. Contrast that with the Twats devastating rotation of Strasburg, Dickey, Moore, and Lincecum, and it's a no brainer. While Santana and Pettite were at one time dominant, big game pitchers, that's no longer the case. At this point in their careers both are injury prone, and in Santana's case he's extremely ineffective as well.
Jamaica does have a solid lineup, anchored by Jose Bautista. The problem is that there's no way he'll ever have a chance at hitting with men on base. With four lefties in our pen, Granderson is guaranteed to see a lefty reliever out of the pen. If for some reason Bautista has men on base, he'll be intentionally walked, leaving Trevor Rosenthal, Sergio Santos, or Kenley Janssen all options to get rid of the "threat" of Mike Morse, he of the 791 OPS.
The rest of the lineup is no threat, as Seguera hasn't hit above AA, Olt hasn't proven he can hit major league pitching (and with a 30% K rate, he's not likely to succeed in the immediate future), and Parra is a below league average hitter. A lot of people have suggested that Jamaica has a strong lineup, but once Bautista is out of the way the lineup isn't that intimidating. Keep in mind that Jose, while a great power hitter, is coming off of wrist surgery - meaning we can't expect him to be as dangerous as he was in the past.
Jamaica's bullpen isn't deep, a significant issue when one realizes how weak their rotation is. Most of their starters failed to average 6 innings pitcher per game, so in the playoffs they'll likely need to get 3-4 innings out of their pen. And I just don't know if they can do that. Tolleson is a below average reliever, and Soria is coming off his second tommy john surgery - and before that, he wasn't even pitching well. Can we really expect Henderson, Layne, Belisario and Betancourt to get them through 3-4 innings? That's asking a lot of a bullpen that is going to be expected to pitch most of the game on back to back days.
Contrast that with the Twats pen, who have 4 relievers with closing experience (Kenley Jansen, Santos, Gonzalez and Thornton) and a very capable shut down set up man in Trevor Rosenthal. Not only that, but the Twats have several pitchers who can go multiple innings, and a deeper bullpen that will ensure that no hitter will ever see a platoon advantage. It's just too easy to pitch around the Jamaican lineup.
Jamaica is completely outclassed in the rotation and pen, and Jose Bautista just isn't enough to overcome the difference. The lineup is overrated, and littered with players with little to no experience. The rotation is filled with injury prone stars that are past their primes, ensuring that they won't be healthy, effective, or able to pitch deep into games. And finally the bullpen is just a mess, filled with arms coming off injuries, guys with no experience, or just limited effectiveness. A rotation that has Andy Pettite and Johan Santana in it expected to play meaningful roles in the 2013 playoffs is one that would and should be bounced out of the playoffs.
The bottom line is that while Jamaica is good, the Twats are much better.
